Monsanto purchases Climate Corp
Monsanto is acquiring Climate Corporation for $930 million, and the two companies say the result for farmers will be access to more information about the all important factors affecting their crops and yields. In making the Wednesday announcement, Kerry Preete, Monsanto executive vice president of global strategy, said farmers face more and more challenges but need to increase yields in the coming years.
“Farmers around the world are going to be asked to produce more on their existing footprint of land while at the same time minimizing the impact on the environment. For these reasons as we look at it as an agriculture company, innovation is going to become more important than ever.”
The Climate Corporation offers expertise in agriculture analytics and risk-management with products including crop insurance, weather insurance and web and mobile software tools for farmers.
“Today farmers have access to so much information, from yield data to soil information, and they tell us that they just don’t know how to get value from all that information,” said David Friedberg is the chief executive officer of The Climate Corporation. “We recognize that data is just another commodity but the insight you can provide from that data can make every moment and every decision count on the farm. The ability to turn complex information into actionable insights and provide real time management decisions is vitally important for agriculture around the world.”
He went on to say that this is an important point in time for agriculture, and data holds the keys.
“We’re entering a new chapter of innovation ahead as data becomes more ubiquitous and farmers begin embracing online services. The ability to better understand and interpret environmental and agricultural data will help farmers optimize yields through smarter seed genetics, planting rates, and other decisions, and that’s why we’re looking forward to working with Monsanto.”
Both companies estimate the majority of farmers have an untapped yield opportunity of up to 30 to 50 bushels in their corn fields.
The complete Monsanto news release is here.